LogFAQs > #882889699

Well no **** they don't. Let's be dead serious here.

Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that humanity decided we just HAD to get to Mars NOW! No more putzing around, no more wars, corruption, or anything until we had martian dust on our species boot. Do you know how much it would cost?

The minimum amount of space for a human to actually 'live' (as opposed to simply exist) is about 300 or so square feet/92 square meters or so. An extra 45 per adult give or take. That's pretty small. Remember, these people aren't just sleeping in a tiny capsule on the Martian surface but need to do things like eat, poop, and do stuff, so this is pretty cramped on the whole.

Then these people need basic necessities like air, water, and food. Now, it's been suggested that they could obtain some of these things on Mars like growing food, which is fine, but that requires time and extra resources. While it may pay off in the long term we're only focused on getting to Mars here. This means the initial load would require enough of each of these items to sustain them for a prolonged period. These facilities also require extra building materials in order to function and every pound counts here. You're looking at, at the least, an air-filtering building, a water filtration plant, and a massive stockpile of food.

These things have to survive being launched up from the Earth, surviving the LENGTHY trip from Earth to Mars, then Martian re-entry onto the surface with basically pinpoint accuracy (since they won't be able to lug an entire water filtration plant too far) on a consistent basis until they could get things up and running enough to survive missing even one shipment.

The cost of developing these technologies, building these buildings, launching them into space, surviving a lengthy journey through space, and then Martian re-entry and assembly, is frankly BONKERS! While, MAYBE, if America threw basically it's entire budget behind the project they could pull it off along with at least some of the most productive nations in the world, no government in the world would be that stupid. Even if they pulled it off they'd have basically launched a bunch of people into a place that they could never realistically return from to do little more than try to not die in a world where even the tiniest screw-up would result in everyone dying.

No crap NASA doesn't have the money for that.
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I am the gentle hand who heals, the happy smile who shields, and the foot that will kick your ***! - White Mage